[space]

Heard about this recently and it blew my mind: Surgeons will be experimenting with suspended animation techniques on gunshot victims in Maryland. They will be able to stop the victims heart and replace their blood with saline, lowering their core temperature. In essence this person will be dead -- no heart or brain activity.

But crucially they reckon they can operate to repair the victims trauma and then gradually bring them back to life. Obviously the repercussions for this tech -- if it works -- are huge. You'll technically be able to voluntarily shut yourself down - "wake me up in a hundred years doc.."

Also, i'm guessing gunshot victims in Maryland are gonna be a certain (ahem) demographic, so it seems to me that science is using them as guinea pigs? Then when they iron out all the side effects they'll then charge rich folks millions for the privilege of 'living forever'. This seems wrong to me, but hey --if you've been shot and are critical condition, I guess you ain't in a position to complain.

Suspended animation gunshot victims science death

[Old Fritz]

I live here in Maryland. Will definitely look into this.

[The Beast1]

Could have sworn there was a Star Trek next generation about this.

[Thomas the Rhymer]

(09-03-2014 01:05 PM)space Wrote:  

You'll technically be able to voluntarily shut yourself down - "wake me up in a hundred years doc.."

I don't think that the technology would be capable of that. Superchilling slows down dying to a snail's pace, it doesn't actually stop the process of dying. Basically, instead of minutes, a surgeon will have hours to operate. But a person can still die even if superchilled, just takes a while, so there will still be a time limit. Superchilling might be able to keep you at the brink of death's door for hours, if not days, but you can't just decide to wake up in a hundred years, because you'll definitely be dead by then.

It is a rather beautiful experiment they are conducting, and it is a logical next step since research has confirmed that chilling improves outcomes in certain types of ICU patients, especially after a resuscitation. But it's not quiet suspended animation. We're still far from that.

[Dragonstone]

It looks like they are trying to buy about an hour to prevent brain damage. Bolding added below.

Quote:

Tisherman hopes that rendering the victim not quite dead will "buy time for the surgeons to get control of the bleeding." He estimates that the chilled state will allow about one hour to do "damage control"—stopping the bleeding and repairing the major injuries. The surgeons will then reinfuse the body with blood, restart the heart, and let the patient slowly return to a normal body temperature over the course of the next two hours. Later they will have time to go back to repair any secondary wounds. If the experiment works, the patient will return to full functioning, none the worse for wear for having been, for about an hour, clinically dead.

The article also discusses the outreach efforts by the Hospital to at least try to get some form of informed consent. In three years, no one has asked for a bracelet to show that they opted out of the procedure.

[void]

Wounded souldiers survived rather long in chilled / cold climates on the battlefield. This knowledge is very old, but seems to put in practice rather late.

Basic thermodynamics/physical chemistry, reduce the temperature of a steam-machine and it will slow down till stopping. The body is a rather complex steam machine, but you get the idea.

[vinman]

Just think about how much back child support you'll owe when you get revived.

[Tuthmosis]

(09-03-2014 05:10 PM)vinman Wrote:  

Just think about how much back child support you'll owe when you get revived.

This kind of remark is what keeps me coming to the forum every day.